'Call to Action' taglines are Bullshit.
In order to consider yourself a writer there is only one thing you have to do: Write. You have to write. It doesn't matter if you write well, only that you write often. Eventually writing utter shit every day will lead to writing well as long as you are actively trying to improve. Practicing your craft and fine tuning your sentences, paragraphs, chapters, books. One step leads into another.
It's not easy and its not for everyone. The common joke or meme flowing through social media about how 'you should be writing' rather than playing on facebook or tumblr or twitter isn't really a joke at all. The excuses are abundant for why we can't write; there's no time, I have writer's block, there's no inspiration, I have kids, I have work.
At the end of the day, it simply means that writing is a hobby, a past time, a fun exercise.
It is not a passion, not a need, or an all-encompassing desire that you feel compelled to perform or else your heart might break.
And I'm here to say that it's okay. Life happens and you chose a different road to walk, but this Blog is probably not for you. This blog are for those who are obsessed with writing and where there's no need to make excuses because the itch under your skin doesn't allow you to not write. The idea in your head ruins everything else going on in your day because its ricocheting off the walls of your brain and you need to contain it with ink and paper or else you will not be able to move forward.
A writer writes. It's as simple as that. If you do not write then you are not a writer. In that case, no call to action will get you to pick up that pen for more than a day, no shame mongering meme will guilt trip you into developing the habit of writing every day.
On this blog, I will never get into how to overcome Writer's Block because I think writer's block is just another excuse on a long list of 'why I can't do this,' and I'm not for that life. I am not a well of positive encouragements for those who need it to write. I will not tell you that you are a writer, when you clearly are not. I will not cater to those who do not try.
But to those writers who want this, who need a community of fellow writers to help them improve their ideas? This is the place to be. Improving upon delivery of the story, the structure, the characters, dialogue and world building, action and relationships - that is what this place is about.
All levels of writers can learn even from a writer just beginning their craft. Our perspectives and ideas on writing are so different that they can always lend a new aspect we may have never considered before. I'm constantly learning new tricks from new writers and am thrilled when I find a sentence that makes me want to reread it a dozen times before I move on with the story. Its exhilarating to find a new way to introduce a time skip or to change a setting or to non-verbally communicate a message.
So let's dive in.